Briosafreak
Lived Through the Heat Death
There`s an interesting piece on the Orange County (registration required) site with an interview with Herve Caen , CEO of Interplay, and info on the past, present and future of the company.
Here is a quote:
<blockquote>69 days until Christmas - not a good time for video-game publisher Interplay Entertainment Corp. to lose its distributor.
But Hervé Caen, Irvine-based Interplay's chief executive of two years, says he isn't worried. To make sure "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II" and "Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel" games are on retail shelves this holiday season, Caen vows to distribute them himself if need be.
"The way I do it doesn't really matter," said Caen, 42, who co-founded Titus Interactive, a top game company in France that now owns 71 percent of Interplay. "(Retailers) already know the titles are coming out, and these games are big enough that retailers want to get them on the shelves."
Being without a prime distributor so close to Christmas would wreak havoc on most companies. But Interplay is a survivor. This latest trouble appears to be just another in a long line of headaches for the veteran game publisher, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.
Irvine-based Interplay, one of the hottest game companies in the 1990s, is half the size it used to be, with 200 employees. On any given day, developers are working on a half dozen games, instead of the 15 they were producing during its heyday. Nasdaq delisted its stock last fall because the price fell below $1. Interplay shares, which now trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, closed Wednesday at 10 cents.
And now, it faces a lawsuit from former distributor Vivendi Universal Games, which says it will seek an injunction to prevent Interplay from signing a distribution deal with anyone else. Interplay dropped Vivendi as its North American distributor last month, saying that Vivendi owes it more than $3 million.
[...]
Even with the Vivendi lawsuit pending, Caen has moved on. He's busy talking to potential distributors to make sure the games are on store shelves by November. After all, Caen said, "Profitability is contingent on the fourth quarter."
Vivendi, which became Interplay's exclusive North American distributor in 2001, contends that Interplay is trying to get out of a multiyear contract by claiming Vivendi hasn't made all of its payments. Vivendi denies the claims, according to its lawsuit.
"The heart of the dispute is all over money," said Caen. "I'm certainly willing to work it out with Vivendi. My goal is to get the games on the shelves."
Vivendi declined to comment.
Interplay has the advantage that retailers are expecting its games, said DFC Intelligence's Cole. Getting them to retailers in time for Christmas will be a hassle, he said, but not impossible. It could use independent distributors or handle the distribution itself, as it formerly did, though that might delay the games' arrival in stores until after Christmas.
If Interplay does get the games in front of customers by Christmas, sales are likely to be strong, said Richard Ow, an analyst with market researcher The NPD Group. Previous "Baldur's Gate" and "Fallout" titles have sold around a half million or more copies - not a bad number for any game, Ow said.
"They've achieved something that more than 50 percent of games don't achieve," Ow said. "More than 50 percent of games don't even sell 50,000 units. (Interplay) is definitely in the higher percentile as far as games go."
Nationwide, console games and hardware reached $4.5 billion by August, not including computer games, according to the NPD. Fifty percent of the year's sales are made during the fourth quarter so, if that trend continues, the video-game industry is on track to top last year's $10.4 billion in revenue.
That's what Interplay is counting on, Caen said.
"My goal is to get back on the Nasdaq and to continue (financially) what we're doing," he said. "I'm here to make the company successful."</blockquote>
Well why did we post this? Because of this article on the Spong site, with incorrect information, that has sparkled a lot of rumours in the last hours.
As you can see in the interview Interplay isn`t dead. But we went deeper and after a few hours checking all this info we can say that:
-Interplay is not defunct
-There will be no Fallout2 to consoles
-Interplay is in contacts with other companies to distribute in the USA their upcoming titles Baldur`s Gate: Dark Alliance2 and FOBOS, but we can`t confirm if they are in talks with Acclaim or not.
-Checking what sources tell us is important...
Link: Interplay Investor Discussion forum
Here is a quote:
<blockquote>69 days until Christmas - not a good time for video-game publisher Interplay Entertainment Corp. to lose its distributor.
But Hervé Caen, Irvine-based Interplay's chief executive of two years, says he isn't worried. To make sure "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II" and "Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel" games are on retail shelves this holiday season, Caen vows to distribute them himself if need be.
"The way I do it doesn't really matter," said Caen, 42, who co-founded Titus Interactive, a top game company in France that now owns 71 percent of Interplay. "(Retailers) already know the titles are coming out, and these games are big enough that retailers want to get them on the shelves."
Being without a prime distributor so close to Christmas would wreak havoc on most companies. But Interplay is a survivor. This latest trouble appears to be just another in a long line of headaches for the veteran game publisher, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.
Irvine-based Interplay, one of the hottest game companies in the 1990s, is half the size it used to be, with 200 employees. On any given day, developers are working on a half dozen games, instead of the 15 they were producing during its heyday. Nasdaq delisted its stock last fall because the price fell below $1. Interplay shares, which now trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, closed Wednesday at 10 cents.
And now, it faces a lawsuit from former distributor Vivendi Universal Games, which says it will seek an injunction to prevent Interplay from signing a distribution deal with anyone else. Interplay dropped Vivendi as its North American distributor last month, saying that Vivendi owes it more than $3 million.
[...]
Even with the Vivendi lawsuit pending, Caen has moved on. He's busy talking to potential distributors to make sure the games are on store shelves by November. After all, Caen said, "Profitability is contingent on the fourth quarter."
Vivendi, which became Interplay's exclusive North American distributor in 2001, contends that Interplay is trying to get out of a multiyear contract by claiming Vivendi hasn't made all of its payments. Vivendi denies the claims, according to its lawsuit.
"The heart of the dispute is all over money," said Caen. "I'm certainly willing to work it out with Vivendi. My goal is to get the games on the shelves."
Vivendi declined to comment.
Interplay has the advantage that retailers are expecting its games, said DFC Intelligence's Cole. Getting them to retailers in time for Christmas will be a hassle, he said, but not impossible. It could use independent distributors or handle the distribution itself, as it formerly did, though that might delay the games' arrival in stores until after Christmas.
If Interplay does get the games in front of customers by Christmas, sales are likely to be strong, said Richard Ow, an analyst with market researcher The NPD Group. Previous "Baldur's Gate" and "Fallout" titles have sold around a half million or more copies - not a bad number for any game, Ow said.
"They've achieved something that more than 50 percent of games don't achieve," Ow said. "More than 50 percent of games don't even sell 50,000 units. (Interplay) is definitely in the higher percentile as far as games go."
Nationwide, console games and hardware reached $4.5 billion by August, not including computer games, according to the NPD. Fifty percent of the year's sales are made during the fourth quarter so, if that trend continues, the video-game industry is on track to top last year's $10.4 billion in revenue.
That's what Interplay is counting on, Caen said.
"My goal is to get back on the Nasdaq and to continue (financially) what we're doing," he said. "I'm here to make the company successful."</blockquote>
Well why did we post this? Because of this article on the Spong site, with incorrect information, that has sparkled a lot of rumours in the last hours.
As you can see in the interview Interplay isn`t dead. But we went deeper and after a few hours checking all this info we can say that:
-Interplay is not defunct
-There will be no Fallout2 to consoles
-Interplay is in contacts with other companies to distribute in the USA their upcoming titles Baldur`s Gate: Dark Alliance2 and FOBOS, but we can`t confirm if they are in talks with Acclaim or not.
-Checking what sources tell us is important...
Link: Interplay Investor Discussion forum
A2 to the shelves, '2 can repeat BG